Those who’ve been following along this hiking season will recall that John Fedak busted an ankle at Yosemite in the spring. Back when he wasn’t sure how bad the break was, he told me he might be off the trail for the whole summer. Yeah, right. Yesterday he was back at Yosemite, taking on the 14-mile out-and-back to Cloud’s Rest in six and a half hours. (More on this hike here. It’s one of the best in the park, by most accounts. I haven’t done this hike yet, but now I have an excuse to go — I figure if Fedak can hack it with a sore ankle, I can make it back alive.

In other hiker/blogger news: LittlePo is back from her adventure taking an NOLS mountainering course in Alaska. From the trip leader’s “just the facts” description.

The expedition took place in the Chugach Mountains of south central Alaska. The group traveled up the Matanuska glacier and focused on basic camp and travel skills. They moved up to 7,100 feet and learned the basics of roped travel and crevasse rescue. Once this foundation of skills was established they took five days in an attempt to climb Mt. Marcus Baker. This is the highest peak in the Chugach. They ended up making it to the slightly lower north summit at 12,360 feet. The expedition then moved towards turtle flats in difficult whiteout conditions. At 8,500 feet they encountered a storm with wind gusts of over 50 mph. After the storm the course took the opportunity to climb on turtle flats in small groups. The course then started to move down the Matanuska with students leading the majority of the time. The expedition covered 85 miles and gained 15,000 feet of elevation over the course 0f 28 field days.

Po’s pictures give an idea of the terrain they were dealing with.

Someday I’ll have some adventures to pass along, though if other folks remain this productive, they’ll save me the trouble.